All for a laugh

I had a Talking Newspaper date today (12-4). We were reading the Haslemere papers and what a dire lot of news stories we had! Peter, the presenter, claimed it was the dullest newspaper he had EVER read. He wasn’t wrong. I found it difficult to get any laughs at all. But, of course, I did manage a few.

After the recording, Peter said to all and sundry that he likes recording with me because I always make him laugh. One of the pieces that Maureen read was about people needing to laugh at least 81 times a day (I have no idea where the figure comes from) so I told Peter that I was helping him towards his 81 for today. Which made him laugh. To which I said “And there’s another!” At which he laughed again. I thought it best to stop then as I didn’t want to use them all up.

It reminded me of the time that Simon at Telewest said that he liked to live every moment as if it was his last. The conversation went something like this:

SIMON: I like to live every moment as if it was my last!
GARY: What about this one?
SIMON: What?
GARY: That moment. Just gone.
SIMON: [LAUGHING]
GARY: And this one? Quick, get living, dude!
SIMON: [LAUGHING MORE]
GARY: [AFTER A NICE LONG PAUSE] This is a good one. Do it now!

See how silly I am? But, it does the job. I think life is for laughing. Evolution gave us an amazing ability – laughter – and we need to exercise it as much as we can.

Mirinda accuses me of not taking things seriously enough (which is true) particularly when I echo David Brent by saying “I am an entertainer first and a [whatever job I’m doing] second!” but I figure it’s my greatest skill.

To that end, I wish to change what is to be written on my grave. It was going to be ‘Why act when you can pause?’ which harks back to my days in theatre and my ability to inject very long pauses into pieces I directed (my record was around 10 minutes at the beginning of Salome, a feat I am somewhat proud of). I have decided, however, to change it to ‘Here lies Gary Cook, an entertainer first and a corpse second.’ I think that just about sums me up.